The Planning Commission has suggested roping in private players in the development of national inland waterways to meet the 11th Plan target of creating six such waterways to transport goods within the country.
The shipping ministry is already undertaking port sector projects through private players, but the progress of these projects failed to give the desired results.
The concept of opening up of national inland waterways to private sector has been mooted as an alternative to using public money. As the government is seeking to return to the path of fiscal consolidation as quickly as possible, the panel is strictly against the idea of using public money for waterways.
It is with the endevour of noting using public money for the segment that the panel has not approved the ministry?s proposals for developing two waterways, for which the ministry needs Rs 500 crore. In the absence of approved development plans, the ministry is not getting money from the North Block.
The panel made the proposal to the ministry last week, a senior official in the panel told FE. Although no official response has been given by the ministry as of now, officials feel the suggestion is not reasonable given the private sector?s objective to make profits.
??The Commission feels that the private sector would be interested, but in the absence of any ready groundwork they would not take initiative and invest,?? a senior shipping official told FE. ??We need money to start some work on the projects and may be later we can go for private investments,?? another official said.
The panel has rejected the development plans for national inland waterway 4 and 5 with a combined length of about 1,700 km. The Cabinet had decided for new path in 2008 and the country would fail in achieving the 11th Plan target, if the work towards developing the two waterways is delayed anymore, analysts say. The ministry has already suspended the idea of developing the sixth national waterway as the money for the earlier two is pending.